Trailing George Best

Stuart Bolton

Description

Trailing George Best: The Manchester Haunts of United's Greatest takes a forensic look back at the locations in and around Manchester where George Best worked, rested, partied and played during the Swinging 60s and the dubiously stylish 70s. Despite the questionable fashions, it was the best of times. George Best lived in the city for nearly 15 years and this book chronicles, with numerous images, the places where he lived, the avenues and alleyways he explored, the boutiques he managed, the nightclubs he both frequented and helped to run, and of course the football grounds where he ran amok. Having tracked down the people who knew George best during this period - people who lived with Best, the pals he hung out with, colleagues who worked with him, his business partners and personal managers - lifelong Manchester United supporters Stuart Bolton and Paul Collier unearth the stories that other writers could not reach.

Sujets

• Manchester

Informations

• Publié par: Pitch Publishing Ltd
• Date de parution: 17 décembre 2018
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781785314988
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

First published by Pitch Publishing, 2018
Pitch Publishing
A2 Yeoman Gate
Yeoman Way
Durrington
BN13 3QZ
www.pitchpublishing.co.uk
Stuart Bolton and Paul Collier, 2018
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of the Publisher.
A CIP catalogue record is available for this book from the British Library
Print ISBN 978-1-78531-469-8 eBook ISBN 978-1-78531-498-8
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Contents
Acknowledgements
Introduction
Trailing George Best
9 Aycliffe Avenue, Chorlton-cum-Hardy, M21 7WJ
The Dock Office, Trafford Road, Salford Quays, M50 3XB
The Plaza, Oxford Street, M1 4PD
Chorlton Snooker Hall, 21a Manchester Road, Chorlton-cum-Hardy, M21 9PN
Top Rank Bowling Alley, Great Stone Road, Stretford, M32 0YP
The Oaks, Barlow Moor Road, Chorlton-cum-Hardy, M21 7QS
Twisted Wheel, 26 Brazennose Street, M2 5AS
BBC Studios, Dickenson Road, Rusholme, M14 5AS
The Toggery, Mersey Square, Stockport, SK1 1NU
Kardomah Caf , 18 St Ann s Square, M2 7HQ
Arturo s Restaurant, 51 Faulkner Street, Chinatown, M1 4EE
The Mersey Hotel, Princess Road, West Didsbury, M20 2ZF
George Best Boutique, 18 Cross Street, Sale, M33 7AE
Riverside Court, 214 Palatine Road, Didsbury, M20 2UF
Le Phonographe / Blinkers, Courtlets House, 38 King Street West, M3 2WZ
George Best Edwardia, The Village, Motor Street, off Bridge Street, M3 3BQ
The Village Barber, 55 Bridge Street, M3 3BQ
The Stanneylands Vth Inn, Dolefield, Crown Square, M3 3FL
The Nile Club, 3 Princess Road, Moss Side
One-bedroom Flat, Cleveland Road, Crumpsall, M8 4GS
The Brown Bull, 187-189 Chapel Street, Salford, M3 5EQ
St. Michael and All Angels Church, Warhill, Mottram-in-Longdendale, SK14 6JL
Great Universal Stores, Devonshire Street, Ardwick, M12 6JH
George Best Rogue, Brown Street, M1 1PW
Que Sera, 2 Blossoms Lane, Woodford, Cheshire, SK7 1RE
First floor
Ground floor
Borsalino, 14 The Square, Hale Barns, Altrincham, WA15 8ZN
Sunlight House, Quay Street, Campfield, M3 3JU
The Old Grapes, Little Quay Street, Campfield, M3 3JU
Rubens, 45/47 Lloyd Street, M2 5WA
Annabelle s, 6 Wood Street, off Deansgate, M3 3EF
Slack Alice, 2 Bootle Street, M2 5GU
Phyllis s, Clifton Grange Hotel, 17 Wellington Road, Whalley Range, M16 8EX
The Auto Club, Richmond Street, M1 3NB
Former YMCA, St. George s House, Peter Street, M2 5AS
St. John Street, Campfield, M3 4DS
La Belle Epoque Restaurant Fran aise, 60 King Street, Knutsford, WA16 6DT
Soames Casino, 35-39 George Street, Chinatown, M1 4HQ
Oscars, 9 Cooper Street, Manchester, M2 2FW
The Sandpiper Inn, 5-7 Wilbraham Road, Fallowfield, M14 6JZ
Burns Fish Restaurant, 10/12 Warburton Street, Didsbury, M20 6WA
The Midland Hotel, 16 Peter Street, M60 2DS
Harpers Restaurant, 2 Ridgefield, M2 6EQ
The Cliff, Lower Broughton Road, Broughton, Salford, M7 2HU
Oldham Athletic Football Club, Boundary Park, OL1 2PB
Bolton Wanderers Football Club, Burnden Park, BL3 2QR
Bury Football Club, Gigg Lane, BL9 9HR
Edgeley Park, Hardcastle Road, Stockport, SK3 9DD
Manchester City Football Club, Maine Road, M14 7NW
Firgrove Playing Fields, Belfield Lane, Firgrove, Rochdale, OL16 3AY
Manchester United Football Club, Sir Matt Busby Way, Old Trafford, M16 ORA
Notes
Acknowledgements
When we decided back in the spring of 2015 to combine our questionable talents to write a book that chronicled the places in and around Manchester with a connection to George Best, we anticipated that this would be a fairly routine task but one worth undertaking nonetheless. Where the project moved on from the straightforward to the enjoyable is thanks to the pleasure we had chatting to those people who have been able to help us with our research.
Our biggest thanks go to Phil Hughes, George s close friend and manager for the last 20 years of his life. Phil has given generously of his time throughout our research and has been able to point us in the direction of a number of people that George knew well and who Phil felt would have something new to say about the times George spent both living in Manchester and visiting the city in later life.
Our sincere thanks go to those people who were all able to share their personal memories of George with us, namely David Sadler, Colin Burne, Felix Izquierdo Moreno, Alex Best, Nerys Mooney, Susie Mathis, Jane Viglietti, Steve Lynton and Shaun McCarthy. We also wish to thank Michael Crick, Stephen Millership, Brian Ault, Jim Gee, Michael Rodgers, Ed Glinert, Chris Griffin of the Sale Messenger newspaper, and the staff at Ashworth Holme Estate Agents in Sale.
Numerous other people, some of whom we don t even know the names of, have been happy to share recollections with us or provide useful information while we have been pounding the avenues and alleyways around George s old haunts around Manchester. To them all we offer our grateful thanks.
We also wish to offer heartfelt thanks to Andrew Collier, Marion Collier, Sue Butterfield, Hilda Bolton and John Bolton for their collective support during the book s three-year gestation.
Introduction
When George Best first arrived in Manchester in the summer of 1961 nobody could have envisaged the impact the young Irishman would have, not just at Manchester United, but on the city itself.
This was the beginning of a decade that was to become known as the Swinging Sixties and Best was to play a major role in the city s burgeoning social scene, and in Manchester s transformation from a perceived flat-capped northern backwater into one of the country s most fashionable locations. It was to be the best of times.
While the number of books written about the life and career of George Best could probably fill a modest-sized sunken bath, there hasn t been one which has chronicled the venues and locations in Manchester where George worked, rested and played. This volume aims to fill that gap.
We also highlight the places in the city where Best is commemorated today, and we speculate on what the future may bring as Manchester (hopefully) continues to celebrate the memory of one of its most fondly remembered adopted sons.
9 Aycliffe Avenue, Chorlton-cum-Hardy, M21 7WJ
The story of George Best leaving his native Belfast and arriving at Exchange Station in Manchester with fellow Irishman Eric McMordie in the summer of 1961, and their almost immediate return, has been well documented.
During their brief visit to the mainland the pair were introduced to their prospective landlady, Mary Fullaway, one of the Manchester United landladies who had been vetted by the club to provide decent lodgings for their apprentice footballers. The two young Irishmen had their evening meal at her small three-bedroomed council house and then spent the night there. However, the two teenagers found they were both overawed by the whole experience and they agreed to return home across the Irish Sea barely a day after their arrival. However, upon his return to the family home, George s dad, Dickie, had a quiet, reassuring word with his son and they made the decision for George to return to Manchester in due course. It was a decision he didn t live to regret.
A couple of weeks later, Best returned to the city and moved back in with Mrs Fullaway, who was sharing the house with her son, Steve. Mary Fullaway was a widow following the death of her husband, Harold, who had passed away on 29 April 1952 at the age of 46. She also had an elder son called Graham who had got married and moved out the year before. The vacant bedroom led Mrs Fullaway to consider being a landlady for the club.
George s first room-mate was a fellow native of Belfast, Ronnie Briggs, a goalkeeper who was a couple of years older than Best. Two years later George found himself with a new room-mate - David Sadler and the story of how they ended up together owes a debt of gratitude to David s own mother. Nothing strange there, you might think; surely some mothers had a say in where their sons ended up living. Except that in this instance Sadler s mum had actually died about ten years before!
We ll let David take up the story from there, When I came up [north], I was put into this really nice house in Stretford - more of an older couple they were. Subsequently, at some point, the old lady said to me, Don t move! Don t move, David. Your mother s behind you. Your mother s looking after you. She s protecting you in your travels. It was all a bit spooky.
I was training with the youth team then and I went into the same category as George, playing for the A and B teams. At the time, George was in digs with Ronnie Briggs, a goalkeeper from Northern Ireland. They weren t suited personally but at least they had that [background] in common. I think I had shared a room with George on a trip to a youth tournament in Zurich and we d become pretty good pals. I was having my troubles with my spooky landlady, and I was talking to George as it got to the end of the [1962/63] season because the retain-and-transfer list was going up.
Ronnie ultimately wasn t retained so I said to George, It seems like there is a vacancy with your landlady and I could do with getting away from mine! So, I got in there pretty quickly. We went and asked the club and it was arranged that when we came back for the start of the next season we would be in digs together. George had asked Mrs Fullaway. She knew she was losing a lodger so she wanted another one and so the club would have arra